In April 1940 British mining operations were carried out in Norwegian waters by the 2nd DD Flotilla under the command of Captain Warburton-Lee HMS Hotspur was involved in the escorting of four mine laying destroyers. On the 10th of that month in poor visibility and in company with four of her sister ships, she entered the fjords around Narvik and in a surprise attack sunk, in addition to a number of merchant ships caught up in hostilities, two German destroyers and succeeded in damaging two others. Hotspur and HMS Havock were damaged in this engagement and HMS Hardy and HMS Hunter were sunk. After repairs she was a unit of Force H based in Gibraltar. In September Hotspur sighted a Vichy French task force, consisting of three cruisers and four large destroyers as it passed through the Straits of Gibraltar on its way to Dakar. In October Hotspur, HMS Gallant and HMS Griffin sank the Italian submarine Lafole east of Gibraltar. In November Hotspur was deployed as a unit of Force F comprising cruisers HMS Manchester and HMS Southampton and four corvettes to accompany three transport vessels.

In March 1941 Hotspur was a unit of the 10th DD Flotilla under Captain Walker and was based on Alexandria as part of the Mediterranean Fleet, between the 27-30th, of that month the 10th DD Flotilla was responsible for the screening of Admiral Andrew Cunningham`s 1st Battle Squadron in the Battle of Cape Matapan. In April she was involved in operation demon, this was the evacuation from Greece by the British Fleet in which over 50.000 troops were embarked and brought to Crete and Egypt, the evacuation was carried out under the direction of Vice Admiral Pridham-Wippell using six light cruisers, twenty destroyers, five sloops and corvettes, two assault ships, and nineteen transport vessels. The British forces were mostly embarked on the open beach, two destroyers and five transport vessels were bombed and sunk by the Luftwaffe off the Kaso Strait. At Kalamata Hotspur and HMS Hereward were sent on ahead of the convoy arriving off the harbour in darkness and found the entrance of the harbour unlit. When the destroyer came alongside, the quay was practically deserted and great difficulty was experienced in finding anybody to berth the ships. It appeared that no information had been received about embarkation as the telephone system was out of action and the army W/T set had failed to receive any signals during the day, however within ten minutes four hundred RAF officers and ranks and about one hundred and fifty army ranks arrived and the quays were soon a scene of activity. Hotspur rigged lights on both harbour breakwaters and Hotspur, Hereward and HMS Defender started to ferry troops making a total for the night of twenty one thousand four hundred. The ships sailed at dawn leaving some ten thousand troops behind. In May Hotspur with the cruiser HMS Ajax and the destroyers HMS Havock and HMS Imperial, shelled the harbour of Benghazi and two steamers were also sunk to the south of the harbour. All British attempts to bring reenforcement’s to the Island of Crete were unsuccessful and the island had to be evacuated. On the 28th, Admiral Rawling left Alexandria in the cruiser HMS Orion with Ajax and HMS Dido, escorted by Hotspur, Havock and Imperial on their way to the evacuation area and as they were passing through the Kaso Strait, German bombers from Scarpanto spotted them and dived to the attack, Ajax and Imperial were damaged by bombs and although damaged they managed to stay with the squadron. On the 31st, Rear Admiral King made a last desperate attempt to evacuate the remaining six thousand troops off the Island of Crete, using the cruiser HMS Phoebe, and the destroyers HMS Hotspur, HMS Decoy, HMS Jackal and HMS Hereward, they stole into the harbour of Heraklion and berthed two deep at the mole, embarkation went smoothly, and the troops were safely conveyed by the destroyers to the waiting cruisers, the enemy made no attempt to interfere. By 0320 the force had formed up and was steaming at 29 knots for Kaso Strait. Shortly after, problems were experienced onboard the destroyer Imperial whose steering gear apparently damaged by a near miss the previous day suddenly failed. Hotspur was detailed to go back and take everyone off and sink her. Hotspur her task completed, now had nine hundred persons onboard. On June 6th, Hotspur , the destroyer HMS Isis and the assault ship Glengyle left Port Said with a Commando party, on the 9th, they were landed near Tyre in Syria to capture an important bridge behind the French troops lines. Air cover for this sortie was provided by the AA cruiser HMS Coventry. On the 9th, the large French destroyers Guepard and Valmy shelled the forward troops of an Australian unit as they advanced along the coast. Hotspur and Isis intercepted the French off Sidon after the destroyer HMS Janus received five heavy hits, the French destroyers retreated and returned to Beruit. On the 15th, Isis was damaged by bombs from JU-88s. On the 23rd, Hotspur with three other destroyers were involved in a search for an enemy submarine that had been reported off the coast of Beruit. In October she escorted the fast minelayers HMS Abdiel and HMS Latona who were transporting 7,138 troops and supplies to Tobruk to relieve 7,234 Australians and 727 wounded. Latona was bombed and sunk by JU87s, Hotspur and the destroyer HMS Encounter managed to escape unscathed. On November 25th, Hotspur in company with the Australian destroyer HMAS Nizam rescued survivors from the battleship HMS Barham that had been torpedoed by U-331. Hotspur safely recovered Admiral Pridham-Wippel who had been blown overboard by the explosion, 866 men perished. In December 1941 Hotspur, in company with light cruisers HMS Naiad, HMS Euryalus and HMS Galatea and four destroyers, made a sortie against German and Italian supply traffic to North Africa, and shelled Derna. Italian aircraft several damaged the destroyer Jackal using aerial torpedoes. On the 23rd, whilst escorting a convoy between Egypt and Cyrenaica, Hotspur and HMS Hasty sank the submarine U-79.

In January 1942 she was part of a covering force for a British supply operations to Malta. One of the transport vessels had to be sent to Benghazi because of engine trouble with the cruiser HMS Carlisle, Hotspur and HMS Foxhound as escorts. They were continuously harassed by air attacks. In August 1942 Hotspur was docked in the Selborne dry dock at Simonstown,. South Africa. In September the British operation to occupy Madagascar required air support, this was provided by the carrier HMS Illustrious and the aircraft depot ship HMS Albatross with Hotspur and three other destroyers as escorts.

In January 1943 Hotspur was once again docked in the dry dock at Simonstown. In February she returned to the U.K. where she was converted to an escort destroyer. She was fitted with a Hedgehog on the focsle deck and more depth charge throwers were fitted. In September she was transferred to the East Indies Fleet, and stationed at Kilindini as an attendant destroyer to the battleship HMS Warspite. At the end of the year she returned to the U.K.

During January – March 1944 Hotspur was taken in hand for further rearming. In June she was deployed against the U- boat threat to operation Neptune, and was detached to the 14th Escort Group, under the command of the C-in-C Western Approaches. By December the escort group was based in Liverpool for patrol work in that area. In April 1945, the escort group was disbanded and she was placed into reserve.

In February 1948 Hotspur was sold to the Dominican Republic and renamed Trujillo. In 1962 Trujillo was renamed Duarte. In 1972 the old destroyer was finally discarded.